Summary and Key Points: Stephen Silver, an award-winning national security journalist, examines the psychological impact of the USS Gerald R. Ford’s extended deployment.
-With 59.1% of military families reporting loneliness according to the Military Family Advisory Network (MFAN), the strain of record-breaking sea time is impacting Navy recruitment and retention.
-This 19FortyFive report explores the “Loneliness Scale” experiences of officers like Theresa Carpenter and the transition of former Navy SEAL Sean Ryan, evaluating how extended deployments and shipboard conditions—including widely reported sewage issues—affect the long-term viability of the U.S. volunteer force.
The U.S. Navy Is Struggling with Sailors Who Feel Lonely As Long Deployments Take a Toll
The USS Gerald Ford, the United States Navy’s largest aircraft carrier group, is now in the Middle East. Having left its port in Virginia last June and had its time at sea extended now on two occasions, the Gerald Ford is approaching the record for the longest-ever deployment for a carrier in the post-Vietnam era.
Much has been written about the toll taken on military families as a result of such long deployments, which in this case involves the Navy, and the more than 4,000 sailors and other personnel aboard the carrier.
USS Gerald R. Ford. Image Credit: Creative Commons.
Per the Wall Street Journal, which talked to some of the people on board the carrier as well as family members, “one sailor missed the death of his great-grandfather. Another is thinking about leaving the Navy after almost a year away from her toddler daughter. Two more said the ship had sewage problems.”
Loneliness, among both service members and their families, remains a problem, even during peacetime.
Measuring Military Loneliness
According to a 2024 report by the Military Family Advisory Network, the Military Family Support Programming Survey found that 59.1 percent of military and veteran families reported loneliness, up from 54 percent two years earlier.
NEWPORT NEWS, Va. (April 8, 2017) – Pre-Commissioning Unit Gerald R. Ford (CVN 78) Sailors man the rails as the ship departs Huntington Ingalls Industries Newport News Shipbuilding for builder’s sea trials off the coast. The first- of-class ship—the first new U.S. aircraft carrier design in 40 years—will spend several days conducting builder’s sea trials, a comprehensive test of many of the ship’s key systems and technologies. (U.S. Navy photo by Chief Mass Communication Specialist Christopher Delano).
“Loneliness is linked to poor and moderate family health, while not being lonely is linked to excellent family health,” the MFAN report said.
MFAN, per the report, uses the UCLA Loneliness Scale to “deepen understanding of military and veteran family experiences.”
“In 2023, the proportion of military and veteran family respondents reporting loneliness rose to 59.1% from 54.0% in 2021, with 40.9% of 2023 respondents reporting that they were not lonely,” the report said. “Even more striking is the nearly 65 percent (64.4%) of currently serving respondents who reported loneliness. Other populations who were more likely to report loneliness include active duty spouses and single parents. The respondents least likely to report loneliness were service members, retirees, and those married without children.”
The survey also found that those in the military who identify as Black or African American are less likely to report loneliness.
The MFAN survey did not break out loneliness statistics by branch, but it did report that, of those who responded, 19.7 percent were from the Navy.
Lonely on the Ship
But loneliness can also happen when someone is deployed and surrounded by other sailors.
U.S. Sailors watch from a landing craft as they pull away from the forward-deployed amphibious assault ship USS Essex (LHD 2) off the coast of Cambodia in the Gulf of Thailand, March 2, 2011. Essex is the lead ship of the Essex Amphibious Ready Group and was participating in Maritime Exercise 11, a theater security cooperation visit to improve capabilities of the United States and Royal Cambodian Armed Forces. (DoD photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Adam M. Bennett, U.S. Navy/Released).
A woman named Theresa Carpenter wrote a blog post about being lonely during her Naval career: “Being alone on a Navy warship with 5,000 people.”
“I am a seasoned Lieutenant Commander with 21 years of service, three warfare designations, and two graduate degrees,” Carpenter writes in the post. “I am the public affairs officer onboard an aircraft carrier representing nearly 7,500 marines and sailors. I am competitive for the commander role and in charge of 30 extremely hardworking and talented artists. I get to tell the Navy story at a time when we are relevant and operating in a kinetic fight against ISIS. I get to host at sea celebrities, elected officials, defense ministers, ambassadors, and members of royal families. That’s freakin amazing.”
However, loneliness still creeps in.
“Yet at times, I am so lonely. I am grateful. I am honored. But I am alone. It’s the price of achieving a goal I set out to conquer so many years ago. I’ve always had relationship challenges, be that schoolyard bullying, or wading through a divorce and mid-life dating, but much of my life has been centered on having a best girlfriend. A constant companion, a special person I could lean on and cry to in my darkest moments. And, one that I could also support. As I’ve aged, that best friend became the men in my life. Today, my boyfriend is my main source of emotional connection.”
ARABIAN SEA (Jan. 17, 2021) A Sailor directs an F/A-18E Super Hornet from the “Kestrels” of Strike Fighter Squadron (VFA) 137 on the flight deck of the aircraft carrier USS Nimitz (CVN 68) during flight operations. Nimitz, the flagship of Nimitz Carrier Strike Group, is deployed to the U.S. 5th Fleet area of operations to ensure maritime stability and security in the Central Region, connecting the Mediterranean and Pacific through the western Indian Ocean and three critical chokepoints to the free flow of global commerce. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Charles DeParlier) 210117-N-JX182-1128.
She added that she has discovered, including on a Facebook page, other female Naval officers who feel similarly.
In a 2015 blog post called “Lost at Sea: Depression in the Military,” Sandra Schreiner wrote about her early experiences in the Navy.
“I am a sailor in the United States Navy. I’m new though. I’ve been in for about a year, and my first command is shore duty. When I get out of work every day, I get to go home to my beautiful fiancée and cats and don’t have to worry about being away from them too much. But every day, countless soldiers and sailors out at sea and in other countries face the difficulties of being away from their loved ones. Whether they’re in the United States, in the middle of the ocean, or navigating lands abroad, it is something almost every service member will have to face at some point,” she wrote.
“I haven’t suffered the effects of depression myself, but I have dealt with the loneliness. It starts as soon as you head off to boot camp.”
Another former Navy member, the former Navy SEAL and prominent podcaster Sean Ryan, spoke about wanting to step away from the SEALs, in part because he “didn’t want to end up a lonely man.”
(June 5, 2007) – U.S. Navy SEALs (Sea, Air, Land) perform a live fire exercise for the Secretary of the Navy (SECNAV) The Honorable Dr. Donald C. Winter at the Naval Amphibious Base Little Creek’s shooting facility. U.S. Navy photo by LCDR Keith Williams.
Ryan addressed this in a Business Insider “as-told-to” essay published in 2025.
“I’d seen combat in Haiti, Afghanistan, and Iraq, but the reality is you might re-up for another six years and spend only a small part of that in combat,” Ryan said in the Business Insider piece. “The rest is training and waiting. I also saw what 20-plus years as a SEAL will do to somebody — to their body and to their home life.”
“Your platoon, your teammates, is your primary family. The families are secondary. I knew that if I stayed at the rate I was going, I would be a very lonely person come retirement,” Ryan said in that essay.
He also wrote that he spent some time working for the CIA after leaving the SEALs. After a period of living in Colombia and getting “really into cocaine and alcohol,” Ryan returned to the U.S. and launched his popular podcast.
“If I hadn’t left the SEALs and had all the experiences I’ve had, I wouldn’t have met my wife, created this podcast, and met the people who have become my extended family,” he said.
About the Author: Stephen Silver
Stephen Silver is an award-winning journalist, essayist, and film critic, and contributor to the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency, Broad Street Review, and Splice Today. The co-founder of the Philadelphia Film Critics Circle, Stephen lives in suburban Philadelphia with his wife and two sons. For over a decade, Stephen has authored thousands of articles that focus on politics, national security, technology, and the economy. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) at @StephenSilver, and subscribe to his Substack newsletter.
